In recent years, the processing of birds such as chickens, turkeys and other poultry has become highly automated, with the birds being suspended by their legs from overhead conveying systems and being conveyed along processing lines through a series of processing stations for evisceration, cut-up, and further processing. Such automated processing lines are much more efficient than the manual processing of birds such that it is highly desirable to perform as many as the processing steps on the birds as possible while the birds are suspended from their overhead conveying lines in order to minimize the handling and ensure greater uniformity and efficiency in the cutting up and processing of the birds. For example, birds now can be defeathered, decapitated, opened, eviscerated and cut apart while being advanced progressively through a poultry processing plant suspended from an overhead conveyor line. As a result, the labor required for processing of birds has been significantly reduced while uniformity and efficiency in the sectioning of the birds into various parts for packaging and sale has significantly increased.
A problem with early processing lines was the hazard of creating chips or other loose fragments of bone due to engagement of the bones with the cutting blades of such processing equipment. As a result, bone chips and fragments could become caught in the meat of the sectioned pieces of the birds that were packaged and shipped to the consumer, posing a significant health risk to the consumer. This has especially been a problem with the cutting of more delicate bones or portions of birds such as wings of birds. Accordingly, the removal of the wings of birds formerly was largely done by hand or by stand-alone wing removal machines. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,016,644, 4,503,587 and 4,536,919 disclose automated processing apparatus that apparently reduce the risk of bone fragments being dislodged by cutting blades during the removal of wings from the birds.
Such prior art wing removal apparatus generally exert a dragging force on the wings that cause the shoulder joints between the wings and breasts of the birds to partially open for passage of cutting blades therethrough with minimal contact between the cutting blades and the bones of the joint. The operation of these types of processing machines has reduced the risk of bone fragments being left in the meat of cut-up birds. However, most of the prior art devices have a tendency to pull meat away from the breast portions of the birds, and remove such meat with the less valuable wings.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,115 further discloses a compact wing cut-off machine for removing the wings from the carcasses of poultry or birds with a minimal amount of breast meat being removed therewith. However, such apparatus is not designed to work with an overhead conveying line. Rather, this device is a stand-alone machine that requires an operator to specifically position cut-apart sections of birds, including the breasts, upper backs and wings of the birds on a series of cradles for removal of the wings. In addition, such a wing removal apparatus is not designed to accommodate birds of varying sizes for removal of the wings therefrom.
Automated poultry wing removal apparatus have been developed for severing or cutting wings from birds while the birds are suspended from an overhead conveyor system, an example of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,549. This patent discloses a sequential wing remover that is mounted on a poultry processing line and engages the birds sequentially to remove the wings of the birds on one side of the breasts first and then to remove the wings on the opposite side of the breasts. This device, however, is designed to cut the wings of the birds away from their breasts with an additional amount of breast meat being pulled and cut away with the wings so as to give meatier wings, at the expense of the breasts of the birds. Such removal of breast meat with the wings today is not very desirable as the breasts of the birds are generally in higher demand, and are the more expensive parts of the carcass, while the wings are typically much less expensive and of less demand.
Accordingly, it can be seen that the need exists for an on-line wing remover than can be mounted along a poultry processing line, and which engages and progressively and cleanly removes the wings from the breasts and backs of the birds as the birds are carried in series along an overhead conveyor line with the danger of creating bone fragments or chips in the meat of the birds being minimized and which retains a maximum amount of meat on the breasts of the birds.